'Robin Hood' law seen being hoodwinked

AUSTIN — Property-wealthy school districts are skirting the state's “Robin Hood” law by using bond money to pay for expenses normally funded by tax dollars, an education funding expert testified Thursday.

Wayne Pierce, executive director of the Equity Center, told State District Judge John Dietz he has found 53 property-wealthy districts that are using bond money to pay for school buses, technology upgrades, heating and cooling, building maintenance and other expenses typically taken care of with maintenance and operation funds.

Pierce said that allows districts to circumvent “Robin Hood,” the state's law requiring some wealthy districts to share local property tax revenue with the state through the Foundation School Program, which funds basic instruction in Texas.

“I'm not saying that it's illegal, I'm not saying that it's immoral,” Pierce said. “I'm saying that it impacts the inequity that's prevalent in the state.”

Dietz ruled the system unconstitutional in February, but reopened the trial Jan. 21 to consider the effect of new graduation requirements and a state budget that reinstates roughly two-thirds of the $5.4 billion cut by the Legislature in 2011.

Dietz said he expects closing arguments Feb. 7.

Pierce testified earlier this week that there was a $2,124-per-student funding gap between the top and bottom 15 percent of school districts in 2013, giving the average classrooms in wealthy districts a funding advantage of $73,028.

Disagreements over how Pierce should have arrived at those numbers arose during Thursday's hearing.

Assistant Attorney General Linda Halpern said those gaps decreased when she used a different method to calculate how much money districts receive per student, the total amount each student receives and divide that by the total number of students per district.

Pierce said her method isn't the proper way to calculate wealth disparities, tax rate disparities or disparities in funding. To calculate that, he said, she would have to total the values of each district and divide them by the number of districts.

“That's the appropriate way to do it,” Pierce said.

The state also hammered Pierce on his reluctance to exclude “outlying” districts in property-wealthy areas from the state's top 15 percent of districts in his studies measuring funding inequities. This, Halpern said, would prevent potential “curve wreckers” from presumably skewing his figures.

Pierce said it doesn't make sense not to include districts that receive state funding from a study examining inequities within the state funding system.

“You would not exclude those districts that are the greatest indicator of inequity,” Pierce said.

Pierce will continue his testimony Monday. Two witnesses testifying on behalf of charter schools are also expected to testify.